Mini Mini's

We go through a lot of dog biscuits in this house. 

Too many, really.

I have tried and failed to get Seth to cut back. Eventually, I just started buying the smallest, lowest calorie treats I could find.

Cue the Milk-Bone Mini's.

Piper is small and not terribly food motivated, but there was a time when we had two bigger, hungrier dogs. To satisfy their - and his own - needs, Seth set up a Chewy auto-ship for the Milk-Bone Mini's jugs.

Around the same time, he decided the jugs made perfect storage containers for all his various RC plane parts and pieces.

I am not exaggerating when I say my house is filled with Milk-Bone Minis

This is why - as soon as I became aware of their existence - I needed the MiniVerse Milk-Bone Mini's.

Needed.

Fortunately, Alexey was there to help me with that. 

I have my mini Mini's, and they are delightful.

Look at them!

Of course, I had to show them to Piper.

She was deeply unimpressed.

"Please don't make me pose with that."

"Okay, I guess."

"I'm a good girl."

Best non-food motivated dog ever.

Because I could, I also took a picture of the Milk-Bone Mini's with a slightly more in scale white dog.

Thank you again, Alexey and Tori, for including me in the Ball of Joy and Miniatures Odyssey. I really, really needed these Milk-Bone Mini's!

Making the minis

I was invited to a birthday party for one of my elementary school classmates. We were friendly, but not really friends, and I had no idea what to give her. After a lot of consideration, I went with what was clearly the best possible gift for anyone: a Breyer horse. She was surprised when she opened it. Not because it was a Breyer - my horse girl proclivities were well known - but because it did not need assembling. She'd thought model horses were like model cars. She assumed they came in kits, and you had to build them yourself.

1980 Breyer promotional material

The MiniVerse Make It Mini Animals both are and are not kits.

The animals themselves are like Breyer horses. No assembly is required.

That said, I did have to add eyes and a mouth line to the snake. He looked unfinished without them.

The accessories is where the kit part comes into play.

Some of projects require no more than removing the animal from its carrying case...

and assembling its environment.

Heh.

Of course, I always feel compelled to take things a little further.

Although the props are fine as is, they do look better - and a lot less plasticky - with a little bit of paint.

These are fun, easy projects. 

Well, mostly....

Neither Angelo nor I have had any luck with the fish.

RIP Guppy. You are a bad kids' craft.

If anyone has managed to make the fish look good, please share your secrets! And don't forget, I'll be choosing the winner of the Bag of Fish/Capybara raffle tomorrow. Please leave a comment if you want to try one of these make it crafts for yourself.

Bag of extras

Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a few extra miniatures in yesterday's spoils of the day photo.

They're fish.

More specifically, they're bags of fish.

These are more blind bag toys.

Angelo's kryptonite, for sure.

As he was buying our Series 1 Make It Mini Animals, he also - accidentally - acquired a whole bunch of these.

These are more bags of fish than any one person needs, so some of them came home with me.

Truth be told, I don't need this many bags of fish either. Accordingly, I've decided to give some of them away.

But that's not all! Between the two of us, Angelo and I ended up with four baby capybaras.

I immediately googled capybara litter size and learned the range is one to seven, with three being typical. I decided three was the correct number for my capybara family.

Angelo being Angelo didn't want the fourth, so that one plus his ball full of stuff will go with the fish.

All the usual rules apply: Every comment left on this blog will equal one raffle entry. Old post, new post, multiple posts, it just doesn't matter. However, if you're posting anonymously, be sure to include your name. I will choose a winner on Friday, June 12.

Grand opening

Angelo loves blind bags the way I love miniatures, and both of us collect animals. I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw the newest MiniVerse Make It Mini Animals series.

Separately, we both bought ourselves some balls. Neither of us got exactly what we wanted so it was back to the store...

Yes! Let's be addicts!

...for some new balls.

I took them to Angelo's house for an opening party.

Here we go!

The first round got us two fish.

Second round, more fish.

I did not want fish. Not even Angelo fish.

Sorry.

The third round was better.

I got a capybara...

and Angelo got a squirrel.

Then Angelo's wife, Tori, showed up with a whole new round of balls. Amazing!

When it was all said and done, we had at least one of every animal except the hermit crab.

Here they are - minus the evil Angelo fish - with all their stuff.

After that, part two of the opening party commenced.

Ooooh!

So pretty!

This is a Sarah Minkiwicz-Breunig Freddy resin customized and painted by Amanda Brock. My cell phone pictures don't do him justice, so here are a couple by Amanda.

The spoils of the day.

Thanks, Angelo. That was really fun. I like being an addict!